Visitors dogs

The visitors dogs are invested with a mission, they visit with their masters the elderly in retirement homes, the disabled, the sick, in the appropriate centers. They can also intervene in schools, even prisons.

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Voluntary activity is a commitment that must be considered, because it is a long-term commitment. Visiting dogs are always eagerly awaited.

This requires obvious education work, but there is no specific training.

During the visit, they bring a warm, soothing presence, thanks to the immediate complicity created by the dog and its ability to motivate the people visited. The interventions make it possible to stimulate mobility, the senses, memory, create a social link between the people visited, reduce anxieties, anguish and aggressiveness.

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Medical studies confirm that the presence of an animal has beneficial, even therapeutic effects on human health. When the visiting dog intervenes in schools, he participates in information activities (breeds, various canine activities, care, food, hygiene, etc.) and bite prevention (attitudes, behavior of the dog).

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The duration of a session, for a fragile public, should not be too long (20 minutes), as much for the dogs as for the residents. Indeed, they must make efforts, stimulate speech, memory, motor skills through small workshops with the dog (walking, ball games, brushing, etc.). This facilitates contact and movement by people without them realizing it. Dogs are always listening, are receptive to all caresses and stimulations and this "  work  quickly tires them (not to mention the heat reigning in these centers and the world around them). But it is always surprising to see the behavior of the dog in the presence of fragile people. It is quite suitable for contact, it is a comfort, a friend, a memory, a diversion.

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The sessions are always moments full of emotions and the speakers are happy to bring a little happiness to these people, to break their isolation, to see them smile, laugh and sometimes even cry with happiness. Our dogs are getting used to this kind of activity. Indeed, they can be calm and posed when the exercise requires it, in particular when this one is posed on the knees for caresses, but they will be active in the ball games, or the jumps over the canes, or the hoops that the residents hold for example.

With children, no problem either, our dogs also adapt very well to the public with which they intervene. Of course, in return, they receive lots of rewards, hugs, kisses, toys and/or treats  ! And our dogs want more  ! When they know, they like to go to these sessions and participate in these magical encounters  !